What is recorded here

Fairy fort in Ballyleigh, County Cork: a 30.5m earthen ring, 1.7m high, with a broken outer ditch and a newer field boundary cutting across its edge. People have called it a fairy fort, but a ringfort is a human fortress: a boundary, a doorway, a kitchen, a bedroom, a warning light and a place to be remembered. The fairies may have taken it later, because humans often make rooms that become mysterious when they stop being ordinary.

In pasture. Circular area (diam. 30.5m) enclosed by earthen bank (H 1.7m) with shallow external fosse surviving in parts. Field boundary skirting enclosure and fosse area NNW->SE incorporates, according to Hartnett (1939,240), remains of an outer bank. Interior used in 1976 for growing vegetables (OPW). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 3: Mid Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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